Abstract. The issue of making religious affairs a separate branch of the state administration arises in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, in the period of the formation of the Russian imperial ministerial system. The idea of a department of religious affairs appeared at the very first stages of the ministerial reform. However, its establishment affected the prerogatives of the Holy Synod, the supreme governing body of the Orthodox Church. In 1810, the Main Directorate of Religious Affairs of Foreign Confessions was formed. It dealt with all the religions of the empire save Orthodoxy. Since the scope of the new institution seemed to be too insignificant; it was projected to be merged with the Ministry of Public Instruction. The idea of religion as the foundation of the education system, which was formulated in these projects, served the basis for placing the dominant Orthodoxy under the supervision of the joint department. The authors of the article argue that this plan was realized in 1817 through the establishment of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Instruction. It was important for the authors of the constituent documents of the “double ministry” headed by the future minister A.N. Golitsyn, on the one hand, to clearly and unambiguously formulate the idea of relationship between education and religious piety, and on the other hand, to determine the relations between the Holy Synod and the new ministry. Public instruction was to be understood as education and upbringing based on religious truths. It should have been clear from the contents of the manifesto on the establishment of the ministry that the Holy Synod could not be subordinated to the minister of religious affairs. The fact that the Orthodox confession was placed under the supervision of the same institution with other religions did not allow to clearly identify its prevailing status. In 1824, the ministry was abolished, and the affairs of the Orthodox Church were separated into a special unit, which laid the foundation for the Department of the Orthodox Confession.